16 die in tit-for-tat South attacks

Eleven soldiers were killed late Thursday in a bomb attack and ambush by militants in the South, while five worshippers were shot dead inside a mosque.

An army pick-up truck carrying 12 soldiers was first hit by a roadside bomb and then ambushed by Islamic rebels in Yala province, said Colonel Akara Thip-piroj, an army spokesman.

All but one of the soldiers were killed by the blast or when the ambushers came out of their cover and shot each of them in the head, Col Akara said. One ranger survived, although it was not immediately clear how. He is in criticial condition in a local hospital.

Krisada Boonracs, the province's deputy governor, also reported the ambush.

Yala is one of three insurgency-torn southern Thai provinces, along with Narathiwat and Pattani, bordering Malaysia.

At least five young men were shot dead by gunmen in a separate incident in the South, the army spokesman said.

The men were killed while they were praying at a mosque in the Saba Yoi district of Songkhla province, which is near Yala.

"The victims were all men in their 20s. They were killed inside the mosque," Col Akara said, but did not give further details.

A bomb attack at a busy market in the Saba Yoi district on Monday killed four people, including two children, and wounded 23.

Thursday's deadly attacks capped a day of violence in Thailand's restive South, where two other people were shot dead and nine soldiers injured in bomb blasts earlier in the day.

More than 2,200 people have been killed in a separatist insurgency in the southern region since January 2004.

The military-installed government, which came to power after the Sept 19 coup last year, has launched a series of peace-building measures but violence has only escalated.

The Thai military currently deploys some 30,000 troops in the three restive provinces and plans to send more soldiers in a bid to quell the ongoing violence.